Whitechapel - Recommend Some Ambient Music

Recommend Some Ambient Music

2010-06-08T10:49:29-07:00

Hey folks!

So my music library is severely lacking in ambient music. Taphead's 800 Memories Per Second as well as SomaFM's Drone Zone and a couple of other artists are doing a good job, but I'd like to know what else there is in this wonderful type of music.

So I would like to ask my learned colleagues to please recommend me some ambient music of all types! Albums, podcasts, netlabels, youtube and other outlets are welcome!

Recommend Some Ambient Music

2010-06-08T11:03:51-07:00

The oeuvre of Brian Eno is the obvious place to start. I would personally recommend his Apollo: Atmospheres and Soundtracks as a beginning, if you didn't want to start chronologically.

Recommend Some Ambient Music

2010-06-08T11:12:09-07:00

PIG HEART TRANSPLANT is pretty harsh, but about the only thing i listen to on a regular basis that would even be close to this category.

and i havent heard them (him?) but people i know that like this stuff like RIVER MAGIC , but i think thats more power electronics

Recommend Some Ambient Music

2010-06-08T11:13:44-07:00

I think I've heard pieces, but never really had a chance to absorb Brian Eno. Thanks for this! The album (and the documentary it seems to have been the soundtrack of) sound incredible! Will get a hold of the album tonight.

Recommend Some Ambient Music

2010-06-08T11:28:35-07:00

eno is always good.
Bang on a Can did a fabulous cd of his Music for Airports using 'real' instruments but the original is always fab

i like his Discreet Music too

Gavin Bryars did an ambient symphony called The Sinking of the Titanic which is simply the most exquisitely beautiful composition.

my favourite version of it is now out of print but you can grab a dl of it from the blog The Museum of Imaginary Histories.

Andrew Chalk has done some beautiful work as Mirror and under his own name but most of it is more 'drone' than 'ambient' but his recent Cable House album is sublime. his website

i'll come back to this as more ideas pop to mind but as i'm a typically egotistical musician i'll point you towards my recent album The Earth in Play which is, i think, pretty ambient and has been garnering some praise. the cloudcast is here.
if you like it message me and i'll forward a real copy on to you.

Recommend Some Ambient Music

2010-06-08T11:28:57-07:00

Funky Porcini? Hell, I like 'em.

Recommend Some Ambient Music

2010-06-08T11:35:48-07:00

For Eno, I'd also check out the fourth album in the Ambient series, On Land.

His collaborations with trumpeter Jon Hassell are pretty wonderful, too, especially Fourth World, Vol. 1: Possible Musics.

Hassell on his own has created some lovely work - a reviewer said that as a musician he's a colourist, which is quite correct. His whole oeuvre is worth a look - listening at this moment to his Amsterdam Blue, from the MILLION DOLLAR HOTEL score, which you can listen to here.

Recommend Some Ambient Music

2010-06-08T12:07:11-07:00

U.F.Orb

I have lost track of how many times I've ended up listening to that one end to end, in headphones in the dark- which is quite a demanding test for any album. It's so beautifully wrought. One of my top N albums of any genre. I loved it the first time I heard it, but it took a while to really unfold.

I shan't bother finding overcompressed links for you- it's really best at high bitrates, or uncompressed. I will stop here before you get a long ramble about how much I love it, and a slavish enumeration of the quirks and "best bits". I can't recommend it highly enough- if I was only allowed one pick here, this would be it, by a country mile.

(Don't be fooled by newer stuff, BTW. After about 2000, the lineup changed out of all recognition, sadly music claiming to be The Orb was a pale shadow of its former glory. I say this even though someone I knew became part of the new lineup for a while..)

Space

This is by Jimmy Cauty - a founder member of The Orb, and also half of The KLF. It's virtually impossible to find, some of the time- partly due to the name making it hard to search for- and partly because it went out of print very fast and is not often (officially) re-issued. Obviously, I'd encourage you to buy a legit copy, if you can, but don't pay some second hand dealer stupid money. You can sometimes pick up affordable and decent bootlegs on ebay. If you want to hear it, I do own it as a shiny plastic disk, and may be able to help, if all else fails.

Selected Ambient Works 85-92

Spiky, alien sounds, disingenuously far cleverer than it seems at times. I wouldn't trust this man alone in a room with my vacuum cleaner, but it's well worth a listen. Yeah, I know, I linked the CD version rather than a digital download- but have also used Aphex Twin stuff to break audio codecs from time to time, so I am nervous about suggesting a compressed version. God, punk is so much simpler!

Anyway, just a few suggestions, stuff that I would consider "classic" and worth a listen.

Recommend Some Ambient Music

2010-06-08T12:17:46-07:00

A Silver Mt Zion's He Has Left Us Alone But Shafts Of Light Sometimes Grace The Corner Of Our Rooms and Born Into Trouble As The Sparks Fly Upward both have some truly beautiful ambient moments.

Stars Of The Lid:

Someone here recently linked to The Black Dog and I really enjoyed them:

Also: Labradford, Set Fire To Flames (they have their moments, but their more pretentious ideas are awful), Arab Strap, Boards of Canada have some amazing ambient tracks (Over the Horizon Radar, Diving Station, Zoetrope)... I might post more later.

Recommend Some Ambient Music

2010-06-08T12:28:44-07:00

The Hummer by Devin townsend is pretty amazing, designed for a pretty epic sound system but soo good.

only available here as far as i know

Recommend Some Ambient Music

2010-06-08T12:39:11-07:00

just beén listenin to new stuff by The Orb..Baghd.www.newalbum

Recommend Some Ambient Music

2010-06-08T12:39:27-07:00

Calexico, Mogwai's Zidane: A 21st Century Portrait, props to microclimate for mentioning AFX's Selected Ambient Works, The Album Leaf (Across the Pond in particular is a gorgeous track), Sigur Ros' ( ), Tangerine Dream (Phaedra is an excellent starting point, the song Mysterious Semblance at the Strand of Nightmares is spellbinding), Sinoia Caves...

Recommend Some Ambient Music

2010-06-08T13:33:54-07:00

Boards of Canada are pretty good.

Maybe not what you are after but the Gotan project are excellent - a mix of tango and mellow beats - sounds weird but works really well.

You may also like the Three EPs by the late lamented Beta Band.

Sorry, I have a very loose idea of ambient music ( possibly no idea).

Recommend Some Ambient Music

2010-06-08T13:40:57-07:00

You know "a mix of tango and mellow beats" sounds intriguing, even if it's not strictly ambient. Like something you'd find on the excellent Ninjatune label....

Recommend Some Ambient Music

2010-06-08T14:06:19-07:00

Stars Lost Your Name is very good.

Recommend Some Ambient Music

2010-06-08T15:19:06-07:00

Anything by Windy and Carl is essential if you want some ambient with a bit of beef...

Also i recommend anything from thisquietarmy

Recommend Some Ambient Music

2010-06-08T16:01:16-07:00

Okay, so Robin went and started an ambient thread opening with a link to my record.

Lately my ambient(ish) kicks have been coming from the following artists.

MURCOF. A Mexican techno producer who had some kind of genius revelation and started sampling modern composers like Arvo Pärt and such. The results are pretty damn haunting.

ALVA NOTO. Quoting from Wikipedia: "Alva Noto is a stage name of sound artist Carsten Nicolai who uses art and music as complementary tools to create microscopic views of creative processes." It's a hell of a lot more interesting than it sounds, EVEN if you're like me and find the description interesting.

AUTECHRE. Okay, more glitch than ambient, but christ, if you lot are recommending Calexico, I'm putting this on here, OK? Right, OK.

As for the precursors: Eno already got a few mentions as is only right and proper, but I have to emphasize his work with Robert Fripp, as that's pretty much my first contact with ambient guitar music that has teeth. New age it ain't.

I'd be remiss not to mention some of my local ambient crews. Siniaalto does an old-school tangerine-dream-ish thing with old analog synths, Fender Rhodeses etc. Niko Skorpio goes more for a dark ambient thing, and is awesome.

ETA: OH! Speaking of locals, that Ian Holloway person up there does good things. Go ye forth.

Recommend Some Ambient Music

2010-06-08T16:19:53-07:00

@newspaperdrone - had never thought of A Silver Mt. Zion as ambient. He Has Left Us Alone etc. etc. is a quality album, though, and worthy of anyone's time.
Ditto for Godspeed You Black Emperor, which somehow always gets suggested eventually.

I agree on Stars Of The Lid and the earlier Brian Eno suggestions - particularly "An Ending (Ascent)" from "Apollo: Atmospheres and Soundtracks" which makes me want to weep every time I hear it.

Recommend Some Ambient Music

2010-06-08T16:56:19-07:00

Of course, Eno is the place to start - Apollo: Atmospheres and Soundtracks and Music For Airports are two definite landmarks for me. I'd be tempted to make a pledge for Music For Films III, too, but that's probably because I've been writing a lot about For All Mankind recently - and it uses music from both that album and Apollo.

My suggestions for recent albums, stretching the 'ambient' term a bit:

- It's a little dissonant at times, but there's a gentle beauty to Richard Skelton's latest album Landings .

- Akira Kosemura's Polaroid Piano is a very fragile, beautiful album as well.

- I would probably throw in a nod for James Blackshaw as well, whose Glass Bead Game is full of drone-based, atmospheric folk with some touches of Philip Glass in there.

Recommend Some Ambient Music

2010-06-08T17:07:42-07:00

I have a very loose idea of ambient music ( possibly no idea).

I feel the same way :). The scope that ambient can cover is great:

I also like Substrata by Biosphere and 76:14 by Global Communication. If you are interested in darker more industrial ambient check out Panasonic aka Pan sonic or Lustmord. I'll stop now before I make a big stupid list though.

I too would like to hear about new ambient music labels. There seemed to be a small, but vital scene in the mid to late 90's is there one anymore? All the labels I followed appear to have died. The back catalog is still interesting though. Mego, em:t and Mille Plateaux are the ones I remember off the top of my head. Warp records seems to have changed focus.

@joe.distort I like Pig Heart Transplant. Sometimes I don't hear a difference between noise and ambient other than the volume.
@microclimate I don't consider myself anywhere close to an audiophile, but comparing these youtube videos to even mp3s is depressing. I think it's the loss of volume dynamic that gets me more than the low bit rate.
@warrenellis The bass in the first track "Under Stars" on the Apollo album blows my mind.

Recommend Some Ambient Music

2010-06-08T17:14:50-07:00

So I've been chatting to taphead about this thread in #whitechapel, and since I don't see any mentions of the fabulous label Miasmah, I thought I'd make a post mentioning that (oh, done) and some other things.

[In actually writing this, it's turned into a bit of a monster; sorry!]

Miasmah have been around for a while and they release in quite a few ambient styles, but their main focus seems to be 'ambient classical', like what label-founders Deaf Center themselves produce:

Deaf Center - White Lake

Or:

Deaf Center - Dial (Helios Remix)

Helios' stuff edges more towards downtempo than sticklers' ambient at times, but it's still lovely; my favourite album of his remains Eingya.

Helios - Coast Off

The ambient classical scene is pretty varied, covering nearly anything with live (or pseudo-live) instrumentation; some more examples include:

Felicia Atkinson with Sylvain Chauveau - Aberdeen (I can't find a video, so that's the last.fm 30 second preview - if you want a full preview, you can find it on hypemachine).

Jacaszek - Lament
A beautiful track, and the album itself (Treny, Polish for "laments"), is partially inspired by the identically-named series of threnodies from 1580.

And one of my all-time favourite artists of any genre:

Library Tapes - Skiss Av Träd, from the consistently-amazing album Höstluft.

Anyway, to return to Miasmah and the drone ambient earlier discussed, Miasmah used to put out a lot of free stuff at the start of the decade, and another favourite release of mine can be found there: Water fills up the empty spaces by Localdebris.

This is the shorter track, i cant swim; the longer track is my favourite but, y'know, it's long.

(Miasmah also released a Paavoharju EP for free, which Warren Ellis linked a very long time ago and I think it's what got me into Paavoharju in the first place. That's here. They're not so much ambient as "spookscape", but it might interest you all the same.)

Another, um, giant of drone (picture house-sized bumblebees, futilely trying to pull air in through their hopelessly long spiracles) is William Basinski, famous for his Disintegration Loops series, made from damaged magnetic tapes of his own previous work from the 80s.

William Basinski - Disintegration Loop 1.1

A different type of drone is made by (current Wire darling(s)) Eleh, which focuses much more on sub-bass. Again, no videos, but I'm sure you can find a preview or two out there if you try hard enough.
Another one that I can't find a handy preview for is Mesoscaphe by Mathieu Ruhlmann & Celer, which is a fantastic, well, concept album. Have a quote:

The album 'Mesoscaphe' is a sound work dedicated to the 1969 voyage of the Ben Franklin, the naturally-propelled submarine created to explore the currents of the Gulf Stream, and the nature of the sea. Half of the sound is composed of original pieces of music, meant to symbolize a deepening human element culled from memory, from strings, pianos, and electronics. The other half of the sound is composed of natural field recordings, of the Ben Franklin itself, as well as the surrounding oceans and habitats, with the intention of providing realism through sound, just as if it were an actual document from the voyage, of the surrounding ocean.

And I want to end this stupidly long post by mentioning Alvin Lucier's I Am Sitting in a Room, which is a long experiment in continually replaying and re-recording his own voice until the resonant frequencies of the room he's sitting in mutate the recording until it's an unrecognisable series of tones. It's awesome.

(there are also a lot of videos of people versioning it on youtube)

Recommend Some Ambient Music

2010-06-08T17:17:34-07:00

Nobody seems to have heard of Hammock and it's a damn shame. Like Stars of the Lid in orbit with the occasional crossover into wispy shoegaze. "Maybe they will sing for us tomorrow" is probably their most consistently ambient effort but it's all good calm headspace music.

Another vote for Global Communication - their remix collection "Remotion" is a goodun and if you can find it "Pentamerous Metamorphosis" is a cruelly hard to obtain classic.

Tetsu Inoue's earlier stuff on Fax like Ambiant Otaku, Organic Cloud and World Receiver are also worth checking out. I think eMusic's got them.

If you like a bit of spacious tuneless drone music, Thomas Koener's older albums like Teimo and Permafrost are also worth a look.

Recommend Some Ambient Music

2010-06-08T18:01:14-07:00

Three words: Night Is Invisible.

The entire disc can be purchased from Lujo Records for $1. It's a steal. Members of FRODUS, BRAHMS and God knows who else.

Recommend Some Ambient Music

2010-06-08T18:20:48-07:00

You may also like the Three EPs by the late lamented Beta Band.

Not an ambient act.

Recommend Some Ambient Music

2010-06-08T18:22:31-07:00

Holy crap. Some AMAZING stuff here, folks. Thank you so much. I'm feeling more educated on the genre just reading this...!

So I got a hold of Brian Eno's Apollo album as well as Music For Airports and...wow. Just wow. Right now I'm listening to An Ending (Ascent) and the wind outside started blowing the trees around, making a sound that really added to it.

The Sinking Of The Titanic by Gavin Bryars is a stunning piece of work. Just stunning.

haha man, all this stuff you guys have provided is awesome. Thank you! Keep 'em coming!

Recommend Some Ambient Music

2010-06-08T18:29:00-07:00

Do you have an iPod Touch or an iPhone, Robin? Then I would heartily encourage you to download Brian Eno's BLOOM app.

I am addicted to it, and it is generative music in the purest sense of the word. AND you can make it yourself, or let it play for you. I've had 4 hour sessions on Sunday mornings with BLOOM playing in the background, and it is sublime. A classy, intuitive interface, very beautiful and easy to make soundscapes that can play forever if you like.

Recommend Some Ambient Music

2010-06-08T19:27:15-07:00

"Ambient" is one of those music genres that tends to mean something different to nearly all of my friends. I, myself, am quite fond of Sutekh's album titled "Periods Make Sense". I'd list specific songs, but none of them are titled.

Here's a sample:

On a decent sound system there are certain sounds in it that you hear in your spinal cord. I find it to be one of the most bizarre things, and a most interesting feeling.

Recommend Some Ambient Music

2010-06-08T21:23:41-07:00

I really like Godspeed You! Black Emperor. Their album "Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Atennae to Heaven" is my favorite. here is one of the tracks I used as background noise for a video I made a while back...

Recommend Some Ambient Music

2010-06-08T21:24:54-07:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tUevZXuVG7M

Recommend Some Ambient Music

2010-06-08T23:09:11-07:00

Twi The Humble Feather's MUSIC FOR SPACESHIPS AND FORESTS is very good. (Or is that post-rock? These damn genres all blend together on the edges.)

Greg Fox did a programmatic hour-long work based on the vibrational harmonies of the orbits of the planets called CARMEN OF THE SPHERES that's available for free.

Do Philip Glass' extreme minimalist works count (Music in Twelve Parts)? In the same vein, John Adams (Shaker Loops) and Steve Reich (Music for 18 Musicians).

Recommend Some Ambient Music

2010-06-08T23:48:49-07:00

Fripp & Eno's work is justly celebrated, and it's well worth checking out Fripp's own ambient explorations. From the twin tape recorder experiments of the seventies -- Frippertronics, as seen here: Fripp moved to a digital approach he calls soundscaping. The sounds are very different, but what unites them is an extraordinary emotional range that owes nothing to blues-based musics. Here's a gorgeous example from a trilogy of soundscape albums in the 90s (he's done others since):

www.youdothatvoodoo.com -- too opinionated to be ambient

Recommend Some Ambient Music

2010-06-09T00:01:23-07:00

I have to second taphead on Alva Noto (and actually on most stuff his Raster-Noton label has put out). Make sure you check his collaborations with Sakamoto too. Also from Raster, Kangding Ray is worth a check -not really ambient but what the hell, half of this thread is not and it does share things, and you might like Gas / Wolfgang Voigt (OK, Voigt has been doing stuff for a long time, but he does have a record or two out in r-n). Biosphere is also recommended, even if for me it does get boring ocassionaly.

Other option is to just jump from netlabel to netlabel checking random records; ambient seems to be one of the most popular genres in the netlabel scene so you will have lots of stuff to check, although of course you'll have to separate grain from hay -does this sentence even make sense in English?

And even though this is obviously not ambient, I feel the need to share it (I mean, if GYBE is OK this should be and you might like it anyway). Here's Jón Leifs, Icelandic extraordinaire:

Recommend Some Ambient Music

2010-06-09T00:54:33-07:00

Hello,

I'd have to suggest:
Boards Of Canada (which are more Electronica/ IDM, but who cares) – Geogaddi is superb.
The Sight Below (who I think must be ambient) – Glider is particularly good.
Star Lost Your Name, – just splendid, splendid splendid. Probably electronica though really.
Autechre – I think I prefer Amber. Again, more IDM/ Electronica than strictly ambient.
Future Sound of London – particularly ISDN, or Lifeforms. Absolutely ambient.
Susuma Yakota – Sakura is sublime. Again, ambient.

Recommend Some Ambient Music

2010-06-09T01:55:21-07:00

Where the hell is nigredo? Dude should've jumped on this thread immediately and took us all to fucking school.

This is my favourite Whitechapel thread.

Oh, how could I forget Black To Comm? This song's dissonant at first, but when it kicks in it's unbelievably pretty.

I reviewed an album by a guy called Harold Nono absolutely ages ago. He's got a myspace somewhere...

Kinski released an ambient album called Don't Climb On And Take The Holy Water but it's been so long since I listened to that I can't remember if it was at all decent.

Recommend Some Ambient Music

2010-06-09T04:00:53-07:00

@warren ellis - re Beta Band - sorry I did try to apologise for lack of ambient classification skills.

I tend to think of things that musically relax the mind as ambient - foolish I know.

I can suggest Susumu Yokota's work - I reckon it qualifies.

http://www.susumuyokota.org/

@microclimate Gotan Project are good give it a whirl - or a tango!.

Recommend Some Ambient Music

2010-06-09T05:14:57-07:00

@ Taphead
thank you for the kudos.

@oldhat
you may also like to check out a fella called David Toop. He did an astonishing album called Museum of Fruit that was inspired by the actual Museum of Fruit in Japan.

I'm pretty sure it's out of print but it's at the blog i pointed you to earlier.

Recommend Some Ambient Music

2010-06-09T07:58:13-07:00

Yum! I can't wait to mine this thread.

Stars of the Lid
Brian McBride
Chris Herbert
Tim Hecker
Greg Davis
Chihei Hatakeyama

Eluvium

Recommend Some Ambient Music

2010-06-09T08:07:23-07:00

David Toop's writing should be investigated by everyone here.

The Sinking Of The Titanic by Gavin Bryars is a stunning piece of work. Just stunning.

See if you can find the version by Philip Jeck. Don't play it late at night.

(Also, Philip Jeck's SAND.)

Apps: I prefer Trope to Bloom, funnily enough.

Recommend Some Ambient Music

2010-06-09T08:51:23-07:00

Absolutely. Toop is the godfather of writing on experimental music. His book Haunted Weather is the d's b's.

Much as I like Jeck - ' 7 ' is my personal recommendation - i wasn't blown away by his version of Titanic. The 1990 Les Disque Du Crepuscle release with Bryars has Bryars on double bass and Alexander Balanescu on viola is just perfectly paced and beautifully played.

Recommend Some Ambient Music

2010-06-09T21:34:14-07:00

Christ, you guys weren't kidding about David Toop. Found a copy of Museum Of Fruit on the blog that Ian linked to and wow. I'm really digging his arrangements.

Paul Sizer: Sadly I don't have an iPhone or an iPod touch. I decided to get myself a 150GB iPod instead so I could fill the bastard up with as much music and videos as possible.

Warren: Haven't found any Phillip Jeck yet, but his version of a song that already has a way of making me feel empty on a bad day is even more out there, I need to find it.

Sedge: Loving Aberdeen!

Recommend Some Ambient Music

2010-06-10T11:09:33-07:00

I'd definately add Colleen to the list - she's a label mate to Susuma Yakota (have a look at the Leaf Record website - it's not all ambient but a lovely label and they do really good cheap sampler cds). I second Denari on listening to Autechre's Amber - it's their warmest album.

Corrected for numerical inexactitude

Recommend Some Ambient Music

2010-06-10T11:39:24-07:00

I pissed on Ben Frost last year, perhaps unfairly-- 'Theory of Machines' left me cold, but a friend convinced me to listen to 'By The Throat', which brings menace & mystery in scabby buckets.

@adrian r: I was introduced to Fripp's soundscapes by some homeless dude who was trying to sell a stack of League of Crafty Guitarists CDs-- at the bottom of which, I found '1999'. I paid him in poverty punch. (Fortified wine, not beatings.) The album unnerved & enchanted me by turns, so when Fripp brought his schtick to Atlanta I bought a ticket. A night of tormented wonders!

Recommend Some Ambient Music

2010-06-10T15:27:33-07:00

I have nothing to contribute except to thank everyone for their suggestions. I've been sampling ambient artists for the past month or so (starting with Stars Lost Your Name, oddly enough) and haven't had the faintest idea where to go from there. This is fantastic! Thanks!

Recommend Some Ambient Music

2010-06-10T16:04:50-07:00

@RevD

If you like Ben Frost, then you will love Gjöll. They do some really harsh ice-whipped icelandic dark ambient. I admit it's best to listen to these guys during a really dark winter. But damn it's so spectral and haunted. These are from their 2009 album "sum of transformations"

Recommend Some Ambient Music

2010-06-11T20:52:50-07:00

Nice to see that @Jonah mentioned COIL's "Time Machines" already. Hard album to get a copy of (legally) but well worth it. COIL's "Live One" aka "Time Machines From The Heart Of Darkness" is probably easier to find and has very similar content. Although I don't know if you would call what COIL does on those albums "ambient" or "drone."

A personal favorite of mine is Harold Budd. A lot of people say his work is to overtly pretty, but I think it's wonderful. I would recommend his albums "The White Arcades" and "Lovely Thunder"

This is from the latter.

Also CoH tickles my fancy and my brain. Check out "Above Air." Can't find a video for him so here is a Wiki link

Nurse With Wound's "Salt Marie Celeste" is also good. The whole track is an hour long.

Recommend Some Ambient Music

2010-06-12T01:19:01-07:00

interestingly Salt Marie Celeste is Steve Stapleton's homage to Sinking of the Titanic. it is very good.

Recommend Some Ambient Music

2010-06-12T07:45:50-07:00

i like a lot of the electronica stuff people have already mentioned, your autechres and alva notos. and i third that nurse with wound recommendation for Salt Marie Celeste, such a moody album. and here are a few tips for dark ambient/drone music that i like:
Troum - Wrota Sfer (Part One)

Inade - Conquer Time

Sleep Research Facility - Nostromo C-Deck

Herbst9 - The Gods Are Small Birds (which inspired my story that went up on Telling of Tales)

Lustmord - Immersion

all of those fall into the bass heavy end of ambient, so no doubt not to everyone's taste.

Recommend Some Ambient Music

2010-06-13T12:43:33-07:00

Nobody mentioned Loscil yet?

the label Kranky as a whole is a good place to start. Not everything is ambient but the majority is.

Jónsi & Alex (Jónsi of Sigur Ros) have a record out that's lovely ambient stuff.

Stars of the Lid - Avec Laudenum is a personal favorite that never gets old. But all their records are good.

...I'll think of more.

Recommend Some Ambient Music

2010-06-13T12:57:57-07:00

I'm not sure if it falls under ambient, my Knowledge of genre definitions is a bit ropey, but Akira Yamaoka's Silent Hill soundtracks form a great dark backdrop for doing things, and are available as OST's. Tends toward clanking/brooding gothic, but I genuinely just like listening to them.

Recommend Some Ambient Music

2010-06-13T14:25:07-07:00

Recommend Some Ambient Music

2010-06-13T15:54:07-07:00

@VertigoJones HELL YEAH! I think the SH1 soundtrack is the most "ambient" of them but rest are still beautiful and worth a listen. On the same emotional wavelength as ambient music if not the same genre. SH2 soundtrack especially.

Recommend Some Ambient Music

2010-06-17T12:41:32-07:00

I just wanted to mention, before this thread flickers and dies, that it's been pretty excellent. I'm happy that a lot of the important stuff I already know has got a mention, and I've been checking out the stuff I don't already know and enjoying it. I've already sent a couple of people this way for an introduction to ambient music.

Gush gush.

Recommend Some Ambient Music

2010-06-17T13:05:43-07:00

BASTARD NOISE...holy crap, them live was intensssssse on sunday
look at this table

Recommend Some Ambient Music

2010-06-18T18:42:28-07:00

Some great stuff here. I think that the following artists haven't been mentioned so here goes...I've included ambient-drone-noise-minimal stuff that I thought were within the parameters of the thread as it developed.

Indignant Senility.

Zbigniew Karkowski.

Ikue Mori. Her album ONE HUNDRED ASPECTS OF THE MOON is particularly awesome.

Lull

Emeralds.

Eleh.

Kid 606 has released some really good ambient albums like THE SOCCERGIRL EP, PS I LOVE YOU and SONGS ABOUT FUCKING STEVE ALBINI.

Tony Wakeford and Andrew Liles' awesome The Wardrobe project. Amazing. A lot of dark neofolk stuff like Wakeford's own or The Triple Tree are well worth checking out if you like stuff like Natural snow Buildings or Maninkari.

Tehom's THERIOMORPHIC SPIRITS is also very cool.

Aidan Baker.

Aki Tsuyuko. Her album ONGAKUSHITSU is just dreamy.

Andrew Chalk.

Anduin.

Aoki Takamasa's quiter stuff, like SILICOM 2 is great.

Apoptose! Listen to BLUTOPFER!

Aidan baker's ARC project.

Arne Nordheim. One of the more overlooked contemporary composers.

Bernard Xolotl. Unbelievable.

BJ NIlsen.

Burning star Core. CHALLENGER is epic.

Oren Ambarchi. Frequent Sunn 0))) collaborator.

The Caretaker

Dada. 70s Japanese drone/ambient. Aethereal.

Deathprod.

Final.

Ghosts on Water. Andrew Chalk project.

Jasper TX.

Joel Fajerman

Jonas Reinhardt. Minimal modern composition.

Kevin Drumm.

Real Life's JOURNEY OF THE CARCHARADON.Nice slice of 90s techno/ambient.

Seefeel. Quique is a classic.

Richard Pinhas. The founder of Heldon. Awesome guitar ambient.

Shedding. What God Doesn't Bless, You Won't Love; What You Don't Love, the Child Won't Know is a brilliant album. Eric Dolphy-style looped horns and clarinets over long drones.

Recommend Some Ambient Music

2010-06-29T14:57:44-07:00

Wing and Aqua two great musics.

Recommend Some Ambient Music

2010-07-01T17:28:32-07:00

Colin Town.

Recommend Some Ambient Music

2010-07-02T15:36:11-07:00

not strictly ambient but I would check Burial - Untrue.

Recommend Some Ambient Music

2010-07-02T17:26:43-07:00

Machinarium soundtrack?

Recommend Some Ambient Music

2010-07-04T19:18:45-07:00

@nigredo-- god yes, how could I forget Tim Hecker & Aiden Baker's 'Phantasma Parastasie'? Beautifully dire drone, like drowning Frippertronics in a tar pit...

Recommend Some Ambient Music

2010-07-06T02:06:59-07:00

Lustmord - Heresy

Recommend Some Ambient Music

2010-08-04T18:58:37-07:00

@jonah - great choices
I highly reccomend Murcof, one of Leaf Label's finest glitch / minimal producers - his early stuff is much more beat-driven, and fractures orchestral sounds. See below

By the time he's reached Cosmos, it's become epic walls of sound that totally sweep you up - the only problem with Murcof as ambience (going by Eno's 'wallpaper' theory) is that it's almost too emotive to tune out - I remember one of the first times I listened to Cosmos, I was barely aware of Cosmos pt.1 until the track finished and I realised I'd stopped writing about 5minutes ago and was sitting shaking. Fucking awesome.

Not sure if the embed codes have worked above, so here's the links
Murcof - Maiz
Murcof - Cosmos pt.1

Recommend Some Ambient Music

2010-08-04T23:54:38-07:00

The album that actually got me into ambient is Lightwave's "Tycho Brahe". It's very cold and creepy in a good way.

Recommend Some Ambient Music

2010-08-05T04:30:29-07:00

A good friend of mine just gave me an EP for my label, it was largely produced about 10 years ago, and has a really nice feel to it which mirrors my favourite shade of ambient, which is the kind of 'Artificial Intelligence'-era Warp sound, or early Boards of Canada. The EP was remastered by christ. of Benbecula Records (also worth checking out, ambient fans).

Kink Slap Simian - Hybrid Man Machina [free DL]

Recommend Some Ambient Music

2010-08-05T10:51:10-07:00

I like the Japanese mid-90's stuff.
C.C.C.C. is my fave.
You may not call it ambient, it is to me.

Recommend Some Ambient Music

2010-08-05T12:34:31-07:00

Any of Keith Fullerton Whitman's Playthroughs style guitar pieces. (He has an album of them on Kranky that is amazing.)
KFW has been sticking with me lately. That and an old super warped tape of Mahler's First Symphony I found at a thrift store have been my filling space music.

Recommend Some Ambient Music

2010-08-05T12:56:23-07:00

The first two albums I did were far more ambient and nice sounding than anything i've done since. I lost both of them for a good 5 years or so until they both resurfaced this month!

both free/pay-what-you-like

first album which is all bass with effects and mostly me teaching myself to record and mix
listen with patients

second album where i start to play with synths and pianos
CD002

Recommend Some Ambient Music

2010-08-06T19:52:23-07:00

I humbly submit my death/drone/ambient project SEPLOPHOBIA ... inspired by many of the fantastic sounds already included in this thread.

Some of my recordings stray more into harsh noise but my focus is usually set on creating creeped out ambient soundscapes.

http://seplophobia.bandcamp.com/album/death-tunnel

Recommend Some Ambient Music

2010-08-06T23:45:08-07:00

I´d suggest this guy:

http://www.myspace.com/rubberbandbanjo

Great tunes to get in sci fi mood

Recommend Some Ambient Music

2010-08-07T04:07:05-07:00

God DAMN, Randroid. Felt good to get the shit kicked out of me.

If you're ever touring Finland, the Baltic states or Russia, I've got some contacts for you.

Recommend Some Ambient Music

2010-08-07T04:32:07-07:00

Some good suggestions there. Oh god, I'm going to end up buying more CDs...

Of Eno's stuff, I agree with Warren that Apollo - Atmospheres and Soundtracks is an essential. I also love January 07003: Bell studies for the clock of the Long Now and a recent album he did with Fripp called The Equatorial Stars. If you have a few minutes, there's a funny story in the New York Times from a few years back describing what happened when someone selected an Eno track on a jukebox in a bar...

A mate of mine - James Fahy - records ambient pieces under the name ambienteer and puts them up on his website for you to listen to. I recommend giving his stuff a listen, he's very good.

I guess the daddy of them all is Terry Riley's A Rainbow in Curved Air:

Odd to think this music ended its days as background music for the original radio series of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Hitchhiker's used really interesting music to establish mood (ambient music's really good for this) and it introduced me to lots of artists I've loved ever since. Lots of Ligeti, for example. Here's a couple you might recognise from the series:

Volumina
Melodien

They used lots of stuff from Fripp and Eno's Evening Star too, as well as stuff by Stockhausen. Is Stockhausen ambient?

Stockhausen

Or Stomu Yamashta, perhaps?

Stomu Yamashta

Even if you don't class these as true ambient music, they had an influence on the genre's development. If you're heading down that road you might find it interesting to visit them on the way.

best,
Chris H

Recommend Some Ambient Music

2010-08-07T06:15:24-07:00

"After the Heat", album by Cluster.

Recommend Some Ambient Music

2010-08-07T18:55:13-07:00

Some of my favorites -

Aphex Twin - Selected Ambient Works Vol. 2
Brian Eno- Music for Airports ( If you like and get to know the Eno record check out Bang on a Can's version of Music for Airports...which has a live band recreating the album which is mostly put together with tape loops. It is really great too) -- On Land & Apollo & anything he did with Harold Budd is also great.
Paul Schutze - New Maps of Hell v. 1 & 2 The Rapture of Metals, Deus Ex Machina
Tangerine Dream - Phaedra & Atem
The Orb- UFOrb
Biosphere- Substrata
Steve Roach- Innerzone, Light Fantastic
Autechre- Amber (probably moves too much to be really ambient, but it is quite lush)
Cluster- II, After the Heat

Recommend Some Ambient Music

2010-08-10T07:37:32-07:00

Randroid - that's some cool shit you have going on there.

I recently found this blog, which collects a lot of deleted albums and out of issue stuff, including Biosphere's first album, Microgravity.
There's also Susuma Yokota and Robert Henke stuff, though the main focus is the detroit and Basic Channel techno - some of that's great headspaces, if not actually "ambient" in the strictest sense....

Recommend Some Ambient Music

2010-08-10T17:06:55-07:00

Well, everyone has beat me to most of my suggestions... Actually, that makes me really happy (relative to my experience on most internet forums) :D

I didn't comb every page to make sure this wasn't brought up, but even if it was, Atrium Carceri on swedish label Cold Meat Industry are BRILLIANT atmospheric, dark-soundtrack ambiance. Recommend 2003 album "Cellblock"

This is a bit different in tone, but it's got an amazing Dali-esque video.

Recommend Some Ambient Music

2010-08-10T17:29:53-07:00

@Kid Ritalin

Wow. Kudos for sharing Murcof... You got me hooked

8'_'8 <--- ears at attention.

You might like Bad Sector... http://www.bad-sector.com/bs/download.html

Check out 'Alex 1964' off "Dolemen Factory" for starters.

Recommend Some Ambient Music

2010-08-10T21:32:00-07:00

I humbly submit my death/drone/ambient project SEPLOPHOBIA

I'm loving Death Tunnel, thanks man -- everyone else go put some coin in there too.

Here is one that could swap in for one of your Death Tunnel tracks on an ambient song-exchange program. It too is on the harsher regions of ambient, but as long as were taking a trip to 1972:

Solaris Tokyo Highway Scene

Recommend Some Ambient Music

2010-08-14T10:26:44-07:00

Thanks for the positive feedback all - I have been working on some new stuff very slowly so feel free to check back again later, or give the other things on my bandcamp page a listen. It is all of a similar nature.

Here is something else I recently did with a friend of mine know as Redrot/Nuentoter
http://hypogean.bandcamp.com/

Recommend Some Ambient Music

2010-08-17T05:44:23-07:00

@iron imp
Loadsa new stuff just up on the Leaf Records soundcloud, including new murcof stuff. Very different, but fascinating. I particularly like this
@hypogean Downloading that just now - sounds interesting.

Kink Slap Simian is pretty nice - very different to what I expected....

Recommend Some Ambient Music

2010-09-23T17:28:44-07:00

Povarovo. Not quite ambient, but I think it fits the gist of this. Dark Jazz from Russia, downloadable songs on the site.

http://povarovo.info/

Recommend Some Ambient Music

2010-11-07T13:58:42-08:00

It's that time of night where I crave things that are out of print. Hence, Melatonin: Meditations On Sound In Sleep looks very exciting.

It's on Spotify for those that have it.

Recommend Some Ambient Music

2010-11-09T08:24:29-08:00

I'm releasing a compilation album of ambient, glitch, noise, and decaying sounds through Outsider Industries Outsider Industries Space and you can also find samples at I Just Saw You Die in the vein of Coil, Ulver, Belong, Nurse With Wound,

Recommend Some Ambient Music

2010-11-09T15:55:12-08:00

I'm not sure if you would call any of these Ambient as such but I thought i'd throw them out there just in case you feel like picking them up and don't already know about them.

Explosions in the Sky
Phillip Glass
Enya
Silver Mt. Zion Orchestra and the Tra La La Band

Sorry I'm not supplying links etc I'm not really in that much of a pro active mood at the moment.

Recommend Some Ambient Music

2010-11-09T20:56:52-08:00

From Symphonies of the Planets, recordings done by the voyager space probe.
Not sure if you would consider this ambient or drone.

Kind of interesting though seeing that in our lifetime we will never hear these sounds again probably.

Recommend Some Ambient Music

2010-11-14T13:54:00-08:00

Jacob Kirkegaard performing Celestial Road on BBC Radio 3 (skip forward to 00:51:00).

Similar to tachyon42's post, it's natural radio stuff but this time from solar winds and northern lights.

Recommend Some Ambient Music

2010-11-14T16:13:22-08:00

Liking this podcast/sample tracks from Bak$hish Music

Recommend Some Ambient Music

2010-11-16T18:02:49-08:00

Has Tod Dockstader been mentioned yet? I don't recall his name coming up. He made three excellent albums of radio music for Sub Rosa called Aerial #1, #2 and #3. I can't find anything on youtube etc. other than his old electroacoustic stuff from the sixties, these are from the early 2000s. Here's a Spotify url for those who can use it.

It's exceptionally beautiful music, and should be high on anyone's ambient lists.

Recommend Some Ambient Music

2011-01-08T08:27:35-08:00

Don't know if this counts, but nick caves' Ghost of the Civil Dead

Recommend Some Ambient Music

2011-01-08T22:57:44-08:00

I've been enjoying Morgan Packard lately. Also, Eno's new one is his best release in a long time.

Recommend Some Ambient Music

2011-02-08T08:38:25-08:00

The new Athenor En Form for Bla album is impressive.

Here's some Aethenor

Aethenor from Faking Gold & Murder

Recommend Some Ambient Music

2012-03-25T04:04:20-07:00

When listening to a long-playing ambient track nowadays, I semi-consciously expect to hear a weary sounding man breaking into the music and intoning, "SPEKTRMODULE ...."